A 19-year-old Brooklyn man — depicted as a crazed murderer after he fatally stabbed two rowdy riders on a downtown subway — will be freed after a grand jury heard his riveting account of self defense today, his lawyer said.
Brenddy Garcia, who has been held since the bloody March incident about a No.2 train, told the grand jury that he carried a four-inch folding knife for his own security, attorney Lawrence Fredella said.
Garcia said he had been robbed and severely beaten in a subway in 2006 and then being savagely attacked on a Bushwick street in 2007 in an incident that left him in a coma with 275 stitches.
He said on March 28 he had been at a baby shower in The Bronx and later partied with friends before getting on the subway to go home about 3:30 p.m.
On the train, a group of about a dozen thugs began harassing passengers.
One of them popped a beer bottle cap and threw the cap at Garcia, hitting him in the head. “My bad, man, my bad,” the tosser said.
Garcia and his friends tried to avoid eye contact while the thugs taunted them. One asked, “What are you guys? A bunch of pussies?”
Another one threw a bag of empty beer bottles at Garcia, who said he tried to defuse the situation. “You guys are good,” he recalled saying.
But one of the thugs jumped him, and he was soon swarmed by men pummeling him with their fists and a bottle.
As he was pushed to the floor and his clothing yanked over his head so he couldn’t see, Garcia pulled out his knife and flailed about, slashing wildly, he told the grand jury. He said he didn’t know if he had hit anyone.
When the train pulled into a station, Garcia was pushed onto the platform. Two of the men he slashed died of their wounds — and their friends told cops they were innocent victims of an out-of-control Garcia.
But Garcia’s account was buttressed by eyewitness accounts from several others aboard the train and they testified before the grand jury, Fredella said. He said the case is being dismissed “right now”.
“Brenddy Garcia never wanted this to happen, never intended to kill anyone, and he was completely justified under the law to defend himself as he did,” Fredella said.